Camille+Lutz

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**Camille Lutz** = = = = “All learning occurs at the moment of wonder.” – George Goodfellow = =

Questions to consider as you navigate through my page:
1. How do you define literacy?

2. In what ways is your building/school attacking adolescent literacy?

3. In what ways do you use literacy in your classroom?

4. Do you think teaching/focusing on specific literacy strategies in each classroom will affect how much content is covered? Explain.

5. In your opinion, what is more important, content or skill?

6. How do you assess students? What do these assessments show? What do you do with the information gathered from these assessments?

**Did you know?**
One in three adolescents is achieving below basic levels in reading (National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP] 2005).

Almost two thirds of post-secondary educators feel incoming freshmen are not prepared for college-level reading (American College Testing [ACT], 2009).

**Basic Research Question:**
What academic changes do high school educators need to consider in order to support adolescents in learning the literacy strategies needed to meet the demands of higher education and future careers?

[[file:What Makes Reading Easier.docx]]

 * 1) According to Knoester (2009), recent studies found students who earn high scores on reading tests and succeed in other academic areas in school present high intrinsic motivation to read and often read on a regular basis outside of school.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A study described by Lapp, Flood, and Fisher (1999) revealed that “students comprehended more when they were exposed to and were required to use multiple but different sources of information (p 287).
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Reaching across content areas, while using varied curriculum materials will not only engage students, but also create a connection and meaning, this will ensure that the students fully comprehends required material (Gambrell, Morrow, & Pressley, 2007).
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Recent research has found that struggling students are passively reading without making meaning (Irwin, 2003). Teaching active reading requires educators to use varied instructional practices that have been found to not only engage the student, but also encourage the student to make connections, infer, build background knowledge, and increase their schema.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">While there are many philosophies surrounding vocabulary instruction, Flannigan and Greenwood (2007) recommend four factors to keep in mind when determining vocabulary instruction: the students being taught, the nature of the words chosen for students to learn, the instructional purposes in teaching each word, and the strategies employed to teach the words.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">“In order to reach all of the children, teachers must be willing to provide instruction that is responsive to the needs of each child based upon assessment results,” (Reutzel, 2007, p. 315).
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">According to Reutzel (2007), “ It is through using a blend of whole-class, small-group, and individual grouping strategies that teachers can begin to effectively address students’ needs, skills, and motivations in becoming readers and writers” (p. 323).
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The benefits of successful differentiated instruction are increased student motivation, ownership in learning, student success, and the meeting of individual student needs (Stetson, Stetson & Anderson, 2007).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Methods of Investigation:
====//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Before reading on, please note that I understand these are lofty goals. I realize I would be fortunate if two or three schools participated in my study,and trying to place the students in the same classes for all three years is a logistic nightmare, but I want to aim high. Eventually, I will downsize my methods. Please feel free to share any thoughts/recommended changes for this section of the study. //====


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The study includes one teacher from each of the five main high schools in District 211 and requires a total of three years to complete

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> *Freshman year-remedial Biology class <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> *Sophomore year-remedial Geometry class <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> *Junior year-remedial U.S. History class
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The study will follow a group of students as they move through their high school career (freshman through junior year)


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*The researcher will work directl﻿y with one teacher from each school every year (total of 16 teachers in three years)


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Topics will include, but are not limited to: vocabulary instruction, comprehension, leveled reading, pre/during/post reading strategies


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Each school year the researcher will meet with designated staff members on four different occasions for two hour sessions


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">*Staff members will be invited to observe the researcher in a class setting


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">* The researcher will observe each staff member two times per school year

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Data Collection:

 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Measure of Academic Progress (MAP), and E-PASS tests compared to the scores of students in a traditional class section

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">data analysis of the grades of students receiving specific content literacy strategies compared to the grades of students in a traditional class section

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">New Questions (based on findings):

 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What is the difference between teacher disposition and literacy instruction?


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">When content area teachers focus on teaching and using literacy, do students learn more or less of the content?


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Does the research suggest all high school teachers should focus on literacy strategies?


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Does the research suggest the need for a reading specialist position in each of our high schools?


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What is the success of these students in college?


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">To keep from overlapping, how can schools manage the literacy strategies used in each department or level?